CuRVWander

 I last left off with our Covid-19 test kits as having been tagged as received by the testing laboratory and wondering whether they would get the analysis done before before Christmas Eve.  I had little doubt that we were going to test negative but taking the test and getting results back were crucial to our kids allowing us to come to their house and being with them and the grandchildren. Christmas Eve was the 14th day of quarantine but that alone was not enough to satisfy our kids, getting negative test results were part and parcel of the deal.  To our relief the tests were completed on time and the expected negative results were confirmed in writing.  We were on for a Christmas family gathering.  Well, sort of.  It would just be Cyndee and I and our daughter's family of four.  Our son, an essential worker in telecommunications, could not quarantine at all.  So he took his truck camper and pointed it south for a holiday long weekend in the Everg...

 My last post we were in day 4 of quarantine.  Boredom had set in but now in day 9 we are starting to get a little stir-crazy.  400 sq ft of living space in our 5th wheel is pretty roomy as far as RVs go but not so much for extended periods of confinement.  But we do what we must and yesterday that meant we did our covid-19 test. To stay in quarantine and get tested without breaking quarantine we ordered a home sample collection kit.  One has to go online and request the kit, we used a company called EverlyWell.  The kit is sent to you by United States Postal Services.  It should arrive in 1-3 business days but with all the shipping/mailing services being overwhelmed our kits took eight days to arrive.  That had our kits arriving on Thursday the 17th of December.  On Tuesday the 15th, EverlyWell sent an email telling us that we had to get our samples taken and sent back to them no later than 5pm the 18th.  Between shipping delays and a b...

 Well, the post-Thanksgiving covid surge is happening exactly as predicted if people didn't stay diligent.  The whole country is experiencing positivity rates, hospitalization rates and death rates well above the peak surge in the summer.  As I write we are losing in excess of 3,000 souls a day!  More, day after day, than those we lost in 9/11.  So, here we go again with shortages, closures and restrictions. The county we are in in Georgia, Bartow, is spiking as a hot-spot and that's not good because access to advanced health care is minimal.  They are pretty much shipping covid cases to counties closer in to Atlanta.  The county I grew up in in Texas, Hutchinson, had been relatively unscathed until now.  Since this was home for both Cyndee and I our first thirty years of life we watch the local news and are in close contact with family and friends still there.  One of the things Cyndee keeps close tabs on is the obituaries.  There are t...

 There was a period in the early part of the pandemic when everything was in lockdown that a lot of folks got pretty shaggy looking and even now, eight months later, there are changes in hairstyles that reflect less frequent access to barbers and beauty shops.  Our daughter and her family are pretty serious about isolation so they have taken to cutting each others hair.  From the pictures we have and the FaceTime we do I'd say they do a pretty good job, everybody looks nice and tidy. For me there has been no change whatsoever in my hair cutting.  There has only been one person touch my hair with a pair of scissors since 1973, and that's Cyndee.  However I can't return the favor.  I'm scared to death of getting anywhere near her head with anything that could chop chunks out of her hair.  I'm comfortable with doing things that require precision but in the case of hair cutting I must have a block or something, I just can't do it. I tipped my hand a little...